Summit to consider health of Western Massachusetts' forests to be held at Holyoke Community College

View full sizeFile photo by Michael S. Gordon / The RepublicanThis is a closeup photograph of an eastern white hemlock that has been attacked by woolly adelgids. The fuzzy white things on the branch are adelgids.

HOLYOKE – Appropriately, just as Massachusetts maples, oaks and birches are reaching their peak fall colors, a forest summit will convene at Holyoke Community College this week to consider the health of the region’s forests.

From climate change and development pressures to Asian longhorned beetles and woolly adelgids, the full range of conditions and creatures that are affecting Eastern forests will be on the agenda Thursday and Friday in the college’s Kittredge Center.

Hosted by the college and the Eastern Native Tree Society, “Forest Summit: Local Conversation, Global Perspective” will bring together scientists, foresters, environmentalists and the public for a series of lectures.

More details of the event, which is free and open to anyone, can be found online at www.hcc.edu/forest.

“Overall our forests in the state are doing well,” said Kenneth A. Gooch, head of the forest health program for the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.

“In some areas of the state the overabundance of rain has caused problems for some tree species that don’t tolerate too much moisture,” he said. “But in general the forest needed a growing season like this year to help recover from past drought conditions.”

Since April, 50 percent more rain than normal has fallen in much of the Pioneer Valley, and that has promoted leaf disease, in particular one that causes sugar maples and white ashes to drop their leaves early, Gooch said.

“Unfortunately sugar maple and white ash give us a lot of our fall color,” he said. “We’ll still have a good fall foliage season, though, as many other tree species – red maple, oak, and birch – are not affected as much by leaf diseases.”

The most dramatic and widespread impact on area forests came from the June 1 tornadoes that swept across Hampden County and into Worcester County, causing “major tree damage to isolated areas,” he said.

The largest touched down in Westfield and carved a 39-mile-long, half-mile-wide path to Charlton, leveling whole forests as it moved.

“But,” Gooch said, “the forest is resilient, and you will start to see trees regenerate quickly in the affected forested areas.”

Insects also threaten certain tree species, he said. Of greatest concern is the Asian longhorned beetle, which so far has been detected in Massachusetts only in Greater Worcester and Boston. Called a “tree killer,” it has not been reported yet in Western Massachusetts.

An insect that has affected the region’s forests is the hemlock woolly adelgid, a sap-sucking insect that targets Eastern hemlocks, which are prominent in southern New England. They have been found in nearly all communities in the Pioneer Valley, and in some stands 50 to 100 percent of infested hemlocks have died, he said.

Among the conference’s notable speakers will be David Stahle, distinguished professor at the University of Arkansas, and Lee Freelich, director of the Center for Hardwood Ecology at the University of Minnesota.

Also among the conference’s sponsors are Smith College, Massachusetts Audubon Society and Friends of Mohawk Trail State Forest.